why play it safe?

Rating: 5/10 (26 July 2005)

The Island is the latest in a long line of sci-fi films like I, Robot, that have a good core idea and do not fully explore it. This film is full of good ideas but I get the nagging feeling that like many studio films the script got severely dumbed down to accommodate...Michael Bay? The Summer season? Why? Why not let a story stand on its own? This film is like a Jeckyll and Hyde patchwork of good ideas and tacked on stupidity. I can honestly say that the scenes inside the clone sanctuary were engaging, interesting, and far more see-worthy than all those chase scenes that completely took me out of the movie. If you are going to have action...why not make it a part of the real story? And better yet what is the point of action if there are so many quick cuts and the camera shakes so much I cannot even see what is going on...only get the impression that SOMETHING happened. Basically this was a letdown, there are good points such as the early scenes in the sanctuary involving the other clones and most of the revelation scenes were handled nicely, but I honestly believe that this film DID NOT need action, it didn't even need that "let's go rescue the clones" third act. This is a film that needed to be a character piece...but no, we need things blowing up. I kept wishing that this film would tread into bolder territory...let's say that there was no action climax or speeder-bike chase, or any of that nonsense, what if the picture ended with Lincoln and Jordan leaving together for a life of their own and forgetting about everyone else, and on the open sea Lincoln realizes the gravity of what he has allowed to happen as cuts of the defective clones being killed go on between his sad close-up...I had a similar problem with the 6th day, but at least that movie was consistent in tone. The island is yet another movie with all the potential in the world but has the complete inability to take it's story into uncharted territory. The score sounded like regurgitated Hans Zimmer (bad enough he rips himself off so much these days...Batman Begins's main theme sounded a lot like MI2 didn't it?) The one liner at the end where Sean Bean says "I brought you into this world...(insert me thinking "Don't say it")...and I can take you out!" (insert me thinking "He said it") My advice to the film makers (unless you'd prefer to hire me) is to take more chances with your stories and not have them devolve into action clichés with a couple good ideas sprinkled over hoping they give you credibility when in fact all you have is a film that could have been a lot better that no one will remember a month from now.